<
https://theconversation.com/protecting-30-of-australias-land-and-sea-by-2030-sounds-great-but-its-not-what-it-seems-187435>
"You would have heard Australia’s environment isn’t doing well. A grim story of
“crisis and decline” was how Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek described the
situation when she launched the
State of the Environment Report last week.
Climate change, habitat destruction, ocean acidification, extinction, and soil,
river and coastal health have all worsened.
In response, Plibersek promised to protect 30% of Australia’s land and waters
by 2030. Australia committed to this under the previous government last year,
joining 100 other countries that have signed onto this “30 by 30” target.
While this may be a worthy commitment, it’s not a big leap. Indeed, we’ve
already gone well past the ocean goal, with 45% protected. And, at present,
around 22% of Australia’s land mass is protected in our national reserve
system.
To get protected lands up to 30% through the current approach will mean relying
on reserves created by non-government organisations and Indigenous people,
rather than more public reserves like national parks. This approach will not be
sufficient by itself.
The problem is, biodiversity loss and environmental decline in Australia have
continued – and accelerated – even as our protected areas have grown
significantly in recent decades. After years of underfunding, our protected
areas urgently need proper resourcing. Without that, protected area targets
don’t mean much on the ground."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
